


since you and your arms saved me.

by milominderbinder



Series: thirty days of skam fic [3]
Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: Banter, Fluff, Insomnia, Late Night Conversations, Living Together, M/M, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2017-06-03
Packaged: 2018-11-08 12:46:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11081874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milominderbinder/pseuds/milominderbinder
Summary: “It’s also totally beneficial to get cuddled.  One study said we need about seventeen hugs a day to fulfil our need for touch.”Laughing, Even stretches his arms out and locks them tight around Isak’s shoulders, pulling their bodies even closer together.  Their noses bump on the pillow they’re sharing.  “Shit, I better start counting, then.  Do you think I’m giving you seventeen hugs a day?  I wouldn’t want you to feel deprived.”“Even, you give me aboutseventyhugs a day.  I think we’re good.”a sleepless night with isak and even





	since you and your arms saved me.

**Author's Note:**

> technically, this now means that exactly half of my skam fics are just about isak and even cuddling when they can't sleep #noregrets

_ restless _

There are two regular presences in Isak and Even’s bed -- Isak and Even -- but sleep does not always join them.

Some nights, it's fine. They fall asleep curled around each other within minutes of turning the light off, and don't wake up until sunlight is blaring through their badly-hung curtains or one of them tries to kiss the other one awake.  But other nights, things don't run so smoothly.  It's not always one thing; sometimes, Even’s brain is running just a little bit too fast to keep up with, and it won't let him lay down for long enough to fall into in unconsciousness, and other times his meds have just been adjusted and are keeping him up, or he's stressed about how soon he’s finishing school and what he's gonna do after that ends.  Sometimes his artist’s brain just only floods with inspiration at two AM, and he has to get up and draw portraits or sketch storyboards of movie ideas by the dim light of his phone so as not to wake up Isak.  Sometimes, he's just too distracted by the beautiful boy in his --  _ their _ \-- bed, and he'd rather stay up for hours, watching Isak snuffle into the pillows and curl his fingers around nothing and twist his legs in the duvet, than close his eyes and miss a single second of it.

Then, sometimes, it's Isak who’s the one left awake.  His insomnia is a lot less frequent these days; he's out, he's happy, he's resolved to not stress about the little dramas of the world and just to focus on living him life.  But still, when Isak does find it impossible to get to sleep, it's usually because he's worried. If his mum has sent him a particularly fractured text that day, he worries, and it keeps him awake.  If some people made a few snide comments about him and Even holding hands, he worries, and if keeps him awake.  If he has a test coming up, or an essay he's not sure he’s done his best on, or just suddenly remembers how much pressure he has put on himself to do well at school -- he worries, and it keeps him awake.

Individually, they're both used to it.  And they can take some comfort from each other, just by lying there, listening to the steady breaths of another sleeping body, having someone warm and loving to curl up against in the darkness, even when their minds won't leave them alone.

One night, though, Even and Isak’s insomnia happens to coincide.

In a way, it's amazing it hasn't happened sooner.  They've been living together for months and spending most nights together for longer still; but other than the tremulous beginning of their relationship, they manage to make it until June before one of their sleepless nights lines up.

They'd tumbled into bed early, but that was all hot hands and pulsing kisses and frantic scrambling to get clothes off -- not for sleep.  After they'd finished and cleaned up lazily, they lay there, Even’s arm around Isak, Isak’s head on Even’s chest.  They both tried to fall asleep.

But Isak had an exam the next day and he'd drunk a red bull earlier trying to psych himself up for studying, and his brain still hasn't calmed down.  He finds himself shuffling his legs restlessly under the covers, tapping his fingers against Even’s chest in an uneven rhythm, trying to force himself to take deep breaths.  They're curled up under the warm duvet, the flat quiet, everything pitch black, and he's had a long day -- he  _ should _ be tired.

But he's not.  And as Even shifts underneath him, one of his fingers relentlessly twisting a curl above Isak’s ear, Isak begins to suspect that Even isn't dropping right off to sleep either. 

“My brain is buzzing,” he admits into the darkness, his words a little muffled by Even’s chest.

“Mine too.” Even’s voice is quiet, but sounds a little amused.

“Never let me drink red bull again.”

“Babe, you threatened to shove your pen into my eye if I took the can away from you earlier, remember?”

“ _ Ugh,  _ Even, that’s no excuse.”

For a moment, they’re both quiet again.  Isak sort of hopes that admitting his sleeplessness outloud will miraculously help, and the darkness and the soft moment between them will suddenly lull him to sleep, but nope.  Nothing.  He feels as wide awake as if it was the middle of the day, and he starts tapping his fingers over Even’s chest again, restless.

“Why’s  _ your _ brain buzzing?” he finally asks, sighing and sitting up.  He stretches over the top of Even’s body to switch on the little lamp that sits on their dresser on Even’s side of the bed.  It’s kind of crappy and needs a new bulb really, but it casts enough light that they can see each other’s faces, and being wide awake in the middle of the night doesn’t seem quite so bleak anymore.  Once he’s turned the lamp on, he flops down on top of Even heavily, laughing when Even makes an  _ oof  _ noise and pretends to be winded.

“Just one of those nights,” Even says, as he shoves Isak off, but then immediately follows him to the other side of the bed and starts cuddling him again.  “I handed in that film project today, and now all I can think about is how many shots I wish I’d done differently.  There’s this whole bit at the end where, fuck, I could have shot the entire thing at an angle through a doorway, like the viewer is really intruding on the moment, y’know?” 

Isak nods into Even’s chest.  He doesn’t actually know a single thing about film composition, but living with Even is teaching him a lot -- and he knows about this film in particular, for Even’s media course, because Even had made Isak be one of the actors in it.  He didn’t have to talk, but he had to be filmed walking around Oslo and lying in a pile of leaves and making pasta on the balcony, things like that.  It’s  _ abstract. _

(He’s half convinced that most of the things Even made him do won’t end up in the film at all, but Even was just having fun making Isak do stupid things on film.)

“Regrets, regrets,” he mumbles.  “It’s okay, baby.  You can always reshoot some things if you wanna use it on your film school portfolio, right?”

Even makes a  _ hmm  _ sound.  Isak looks up at him, in the light of their crappy lamp; he’s mostly chin from this angle, but it’s a very cute chin.

After another long moment of silence, Even suddenly shifts against him.  “We should do something.  Since neither of us can sleep regardless.”

“Like  _ what?   _ It’s two AM.”  Isak thinks he’s allowed to be skeptical -- Even often has terrible ideas of what’s appropriate to do in the middle of the night.  “Besides, studies show that if you can’t fall asleep, it’s still better to just lie in bed and rest.”

“Oh, yeah?”  Even’s voice is light and teasing, and Isak grins as he shuffles a bit further up the bed, putting his head on the pillow instead of Even’s chest so they can look right into each other’s eyes.  “Nah, bullshit.  I think that study was done by someone like you, just as an excuse to lie in bed all day and get cuddled.  Since that’s your favourite thing in the world.”

Sometimes, Isak thinks his boyfriend knows him too well.

“No, it’s real!  It’s still beneficial to your body to be restful, even if you’re not asleep.”  He pauses, and then adds, “It’s also totally beneficial to get cuddled.  One study said we need about seventeen hugs a day to fulfil our need for touch.”

Laughing, Even stretches his arms out and locks them tight around Isak’s shoulders, pulling their bodies even closer together.  Their noses bump on the pillow they’re sharing.

“Shit, I better start counting, then.  Do you think I’m giving you seventeen hugs a day?  Probably, right?  I wouldn’t want you to feel deprived.”

“Even, you give me about  _ seventy _ hugs a day.  I think we’re good.”

Isak tries to make his voice snarky, but it just comes out hopelessly soft.  Despite his whirring mind and the way he still feels jittery from his energy drinks, there’s no way he can ever feel tense in Even’s arms; he slides his hands up the back of Even’s t-shirt, rubbing along his warm skin, and smiles a bit.  It wasn’t always this way.  Before Even, nobody really hugged Isak at all, apart fromquick bro-hugs from Jonas, and a few cuddles with Eskild against Isak’s will.  Sometimes Isak feels greedy, wanting his boyfriend to touch him absolutely all the time, but then he remembers all those years of wishing _anybody_ would hold him like this, and he decides he’s earned this. 

“Seventy hugs a day,” Even repeats, nuzzling their noses together a bit more.  He stretches out and drops a tiny kiss onto Isak’s lips, his chin, his cheek, before dropping back onto the pillow.  “Yeah.  I think that’s the number we should aim for.”

Isak is okay with that.  And he thinks he might be okay with not sleeping, too.  When Even is awake as well, stroking his shoulders and twirling his hair and teasing him about cuddles, a restless night suddenly doesn't seem so bad at all.

**Author's Note:**

> originally this was gonna be evak getting up to silly late night antics, but once i started writing, all they wanted to do was cuddle and tease each other like idiots ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ leave a comment and let me know if you liked it!
> 
> you can also find this fic on my tumblr [here!](http://milominderbindered.tumblr.com/post/161389678926/thirty-days-of-skam-fic-day-three-beginning)


End file.
